Sonic After Life
by Orin
Summary: Sonic the hedgehog is dead. Only he’s not quite ready to move on. In fact, he’s downright Hell bent on having his revenge on Robotnik, but he needs the Freedom Fighter’s help to do it.
1. To Sleep, Perchance To Dream

_Disclaimers: I don't own Sonic or Knuckles or Shadow or Tails or anoy of the gang. They all belong to Sega. And this is something you're all already aware of, right? _

_Warnings: Um... Some strangeness ahead..... Be prepared.... AU, angst and misplaced humour… _

_Archive: Wanna give it a home....? ^__^ _(Though I'd appreciate if you'd tell me first.)__

_Rating: PG-13… for violence, minor swearing maybe and all around strangness._

_Summary: Sonic the hedgehog is dead. Only he's not quite ready to move on. In fact, he's downright Hell bent on having his revenge on Robotnik, but he needs the Freedom Fighter's help to do it…_

This fic is strange, I'll tell you that now. It was written by me about a year ago, got deleted with all my stuff and now I'm giving it a go at rewriting it. It still sucks and is rather shoddy – but I don't believe I've seen it done before – correct me if I'm wrong.

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG; AFTER LIFE 

**_By Orin._**

It occurred to me around the same time my head smashed against the barricade that life does not always go according to plan.

That – and I was screwed.

For one thing, I hadn't exactly planned on the mind numbing pain that followed my head playing ping-pong with the wall, for another I hadn't planned on how to deal with that pain, or the fact that I couldn't see straight. No surprise, considering there was blood running down my face. But that wasn't what was blocking my vision. Nope. It was something else entirely.

See, I may be Sonic the hedgehog, but having your head smacked up against a very hard, very unmovable, very, very solid object at the speed of a small missile is bound to slow down even me. A little.

Okay, so, a lot.

Imminent death has a way of doing that to you.

I couldn't stand properly, couldn't see straight, and there was the strange feeling in my stomach that made me really regret eating that last chilli-dog before this mission. Really. I was either gonna throw up, or faint.

Considering the pain though, I reasoned that fainting was probably better. Not to mention it would take less effort on my part. That was okay then, because everything was getting darker anyway, and I couldn't really be sure anymore if it was just the blood or the throbbing in my head that was making everything red, hazy and distinctly blurry in outline.

I had the mother of all headaches.

Things began to fade, everything taking on a dreamlike quality. Y'know that instant where you're not quite awake after a good night's sleep? Like that. I was in a place where nothing seemed to matter so much. I really didn't care that I was down and out in Robotropolis and that I was injured – most definitely injured – or that Robotnik's I-beat-you-and-now-you're-royally-screwed laughter was blaring at me over one of the swat-bots video comm.-links…

Scratch that last part. Robotnik's laugh manages to irritate the Hell outta me, semi-conscious or otherwise.

I even managed to muster up a little indignation. Enough to pry one eye open anyway. I gave the bot a glare. Not one of my better ones, considering that I was on the ground in a bloody heap and this guy was not. Of course, ole' Robo-butt could see this too, via that link up, and it only made him laugh even harder.

Yeah, we all know that guy runs on sadistic, but can we say overkill? There has to be a better for him to get his jollies– not to mention safer for me.

Killing me would not solve anything. And it sucked as well, at least from my point of view; Robotnik seemed to think it was hilarious.

He also seemed to think it was a good idea.

It's funny, if you take a look at all those old tragedies written by that famous human guy. The weird one… Shakespeare? 

Well, take a look, and you're bound to notice that whenever a character is facing their imminent demise they tend to have very deep, very complex, very quotable thoughts. Thoughts that pertain to the innermost nature of life around them, that strip away all the lies and falsities of everyday life, and leave only the pure unadulterated truth.

Wanna know what I was thinking?

_Crap, crap, crap, crap, **crap!**_

****

Because, of course, I'm not a Shakespearean character. I _was_ a perfectly healthy hedgehog- at least pertaining to the head bashing. And I _was_ about to face a squadron of SWAT-Bots who had orders from their Master to kill on sight. Really big, really strong robots. Totting really big, really powerful guns. Hence the lack of "_thee_", "_thou_" and "_a plague on both your houses_" anywhere in my thoughts. In fact, besides '_crap_' all I could come up with really was –

_Oh man. I am so freakin' dead._

And, you know something? I was right. 'Course, it wouldn't be the first time. Though in retrospect I really would have preferred to be proven wrong.

And you know something else? Even though I'm dead… Life still sucks.

The funny thing is, I can't actually remember how it felt to die. And I know that sounds pretty lame, considering it's a life-altering event. Or life-ending. It changes you in a way no one can imagine, or even understand, and definitely in a way that no one can change. Death is dead, and dead means no coming back.

Bearing in mind that my motto is 'never say die' that's like showing me a chilli-dog then saying – don't eat. 

In other words, I wasn't exactly thrilled about the fact that I was someone you would consider past tense. I lived life, because I understood that there's only an instant that stands between one heartbeat and the next, and that it only _takes_ an instant for that heartbeat to stop. _Forever_. 

I'd seen too many people Robotosized and killed to stand on the sidelines when it came to living. So, I was a goof, reckless, and probably what a lot of people would consider wild. But at least I lived. And had a Hell of a time in doing so. Even if eighty-percent of that time was spent fighting.

I didn't mind the fighting, as long as I managed to come home in one piece. Or didn't die.

Which was another reason I wasn't perfectly fine with the whole 'going out like a hero' thing. See, I still have things to do, and if I'm dead, then obviously, it means that they're not gonna' get done. At least by me. Maybe someone else will manage to bring Lard-butt down. But I doubt it. And besides, it's personal now.

I want revenge. 

He killed me, and I wanna kill him back.

Yeah, I know, but vengeance is wrong and whatnot… 

Screw that. 

I've just been killed; I reserve the right to be royally ticked off. I want to see him go down. I wanna be the one to take him down. And if not, then I at least want to help out those who do and maybe get a piece of the action in the process. I deserve that.

Only, it's gonna be kinda hard, considering I'm a ghost…

_*****_

_To Be Continued…_

_*****_

I told you this was weird. This is just a prologue of sorts, since I don't know what peoples reaction will be. If any, so I'm not sure if it's worth continuing or not. ^_^

_Sonic;_ "I don't believe it."

_Orin;_ ¬____¬ "Y'know, I was wondering when you'd show up."

_Sonic_. "How could I not, taking into account the fact that you've finally gone one better than just torturing me?"

_Orin_; "I makes for an interesting read."

_Sonic;_ ¬_¬"You killed me."

_Orin_; "Um… Yeah? And?"

_Sonic;_ ¬_¬ "At the beginning of the fic."

_Orin;_ "Uh-huh. Your point being?"

_Sonic;_ "Who'd want to read a fic where I'm dead at the beginning?"

_Orin;_ O__o "Uhhh…"

_Sonic_; "Isn't that an anti-climax or something…?"

_Orin_; O___o "…..."

_Sonic;_ "…?"

_Orin;_ "Crap!"

_Sonic;_ *Wanders off looking happy* ^________^

Anyway… I'm pleased enough with this fic – though not so that I don't think it could be better with more time. But I'm out of that right now. Back to University. Break's over… But, guess what? Winterheart is ready to be posted.

Will do, tomorrow night. Must. Sleep. Now… G'night!

_*Huggles & Take Care*_

_Orin._


	2. This Is Not The Life I Ordered!

_Disclaimers:_ I don't own Sonic or Knuckles or Shadow or Tails or any of the gang. They all belong to Sega. *Sobs* Tis not fair I tell you! 

_Warnings_: Um... Some strangeness ahead..... Be prepared.... AU, angst and misplaced humour… 

_Archive_: Wanna give it a home....? ^__^ _(Though I'd appreciate if you'd tell me first.)_

_Rating_: PG-13… for violence, minor swearing maybe and all around strangeness.

_Summary_: Sonic the hedgehog is dead. Only he's not quite ready to move on. In fact, he's downright Hell bent on having his revenge on Robotnik, but he needs the Freedom Fighter's help to do it…

_This chapter is too long. Sorry about that. O_o;;_

_For 'Formerly Known As' – because can this author write? Better than me? By far._

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG; AFTER LIFE, _By Orin._

**_Chapter 1: _**

**This Is Not The Life I Ordered!**

******

_"Due to budget cuts, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off."___

******

Y'know, people talk about having the _'worst day of their life'_ and you usually think of somebody missing their train to work, having to cope with an irate boss, or not meeting a deadline, or being chased by a squadron of badass badniks, or losing someone they cared about. Even a combination of all of the above… 

My worst day consisted of me dying. 

I mean really, there's no way a day can get any worse that dying. Heck, I'd like to see someone top it.

I mentioned before how I can't remember exactly what happened that killed me. And I can't, though I can guess. It's entirely fuzzy at the moment, but that may just be because I haven't even been dead all that long. Maybe my brain doesn't want to remember it. I know it must've been a traumatic experience. I'm not sure I even _want _to remember.

I didn't see… I never actually felt the impact of the blaster. But I do remember rolling over and looking up. Then I blacked out I think. Then I died. 

It was easy to pretend nothing happened, because when I woke up, I was in Knothole again. I didn't question how I got there, because I'd woken up enough times not knowing what the Hell was going on. I just went with it. I'm a deep sleeper too, it's hard to wake me up once I'm out, and it's pretty normal for me to just lie there after I _have _woken up, wondering what planet I'm on. If it's still Mobius.

And I know this sounds weird, but I'll bet you didn't know what when you're dead first, that it can take a bit for that fact to register. Maybe it's denial, I dunno, but I spent the first few hours of that morning after my death just wandering about wondering why the heck everyone was so Hell-bent on ignoring me. Because that's another irritating factor about being dead that no-body bothered to tell me. 

Nobody that's living can actually see the dead. Or, at least I haven't found any. I think that part sucks most. I mean, who am I supposed to talk to for say, the rest of, eternity?

I don't know if God ever factored that little detail when he programmed death into mortality. If God exists even. If he does, then I have a few bones to pick with the guy. Think about it, what kind of reward is death after you've spent the best ten years of your life fighting oppression and all-round evil? Something stinks here, and it's not just my corpse…

I just realised how disgusting that is. Even for me. 

It's not even correct. I've only been dead for about a day, so technically, there hasn't been the time for it to – okay. Changing to subject now. And besides, I've seen the body, and as bad as it looks, it ain't decomposing yet. 

Heh.

Yeah, I saw myself.

Only I'm not gonna think of 'it' as 'me'… I'm gonna think of  'me' as 'it' instead, or 'The Body' because that's easier to deal with. I don't think - or wanna think of that guy lying out in that coffin with those bruise marks on his face as me… I don't think I can.

I'm actually gonna change the subject now.

So, basically I spent the entire morning being confused and generally peeved that everyone was managing to ignore me. And not only that, but they were being downright depressing in doing so. Everybody seemed to be just moping about, heads hanging. Nobody was speaking at all. Sal was silent, I remember waving my hands in front of her face, not to have her even blink. Of course, I know now that it was because she couldn't see my hands at all. But it didn't change the fact that when Bunny –uncanny-like– echoed my move a few seconds later, Sally just continued to stare. And I know Bunny isn't dead. 

So far I'm the only dead and kinda peeved spirit wandering around Knothole, looking for something to do. Because, yeah. I'm getting kinda bored.

And I don't know if '_spirit_' or '_ghost_' is more politically correct by the way. But spirit sounds cooler.

So, I thought everyone was ignoring me, and the whole thing wasn't making me a happy camper in the slightest. Sal didn't even twitch an ear when I shouted at her. Bunny was just the same. Antoine ignored me when I goaded him – and he's never managed that before. 

Tails was…

I didn't understand then why he was crying. I just knew that my reassuring wasn't helping at all. No matter what I said, what I did… He just kept making those trembling sobbing noises. 

Knuckles was there too, in Knothole, but I stayed away from him. I didn't even try and talk to _that_ guy. He ignores me on a normal day; there was no way I could get him to chat to me if everyone else had chosen to take a page out of his book. 

He is the master at ignoring. Besides, I've… never seen Knuckles look like that either. Not depressed per se… But he was moody to say the least. I watched him for a little bit.  He sat alone, over at the village edge. Everybody was avoiding him, that much was obvious. 

He seemed sad as well, not like Sally, and not even close to Tails, but I've seen enough lack-of-expression on him to know major sad when it's there. If I had gone over and waved my arms around trying to get his attention, and if he had actually seen me… Not only would I haven't had the first clue of what to say, but I'd probably have looked like an ass besides. 

And I really wouldn't have known what to say, not when Red was acting all broody and grief-stricken. Because, just for the record – Red doesn't '_do_' grief stricken. As I said, I'd just have made an idiot out of myself.

So, I gave the echidna a wide berth. But I wandered just about everywhere else. And that was when things began to get kinda strange. I know, I know, as if dying and not exactly being dead-dead isn't strange enough, but what happened next was weird on a level I never knew existed.

Did I mention I'm the master at denial? People say that when you don't want to acknowledge something, but you know, deep down, that it's real and it's now and it's happening, you just lather on the denial like peanut-butter. I did that. I saw everyone being all weepy, and didn't understand. I heard them talk about me like I was dead, and shouted that I wasn't. I saw myself… And pretended that I didn't. 

This was while I was wandered into the central area of Knothole. It turned out that everybody was gathered there for… the burial. My burial. The burial of '_The Body'_ that is. And I _should_ have been in the very furthest corner of Knothole at this stage, far away where I couldn't see any of the guys cry or stare blankly into space like they'd been doing all morning. That's what I _should_ have done. 

It's easy to pretend.

That it wasn't me lying out in that coffin. Just me. The bruises that they hadn't been able to cover up so well, or the fact that my face and head were pretty much a mess anyway. It was easier to pretend that body wasn't me.  And it worked like a charm, for a while. But even I couldn't hold off reality forever. I'm not perfect y'know. Pretty close to, but not quite.

Then they buried me.

I think it just kinda hit me then. I was dead. I was actually dead. An honest-to-God corpse…  And they were putting me in the ground; my life wasn't even over, Damnit! They were burying me already and I wasn't even dead! Eighteen years to become who I am, and all of eighteen minutes to disappear forever. 

I was gonna do all kinds of neat stuff with my life too, once Robotnik was gone. I was gonna go to the south coast for a year and do nothing but surf the waves. I was finally gonna get the nerve to give Sally the best kiss she'd ever get- I was gonna… People were gonna forget I was here. That I'd even existed. I was gonna-

Only I wasn't going to do any of that stuff. And I had to get out of there before I broke down completely. 

So that found me sitting on an old tree stump, just outside of Knothole about thirty minutes later. Like a baby, trying not to cry. And it was right about then, the strangeness went right up there to not possible.

I heard someone pass by, stop, walk closer. I stared at my feet. And they got closer.  And closer, until they stopped again. By this time I'd realised that I was alone. Really alone. That nobody could see me, hear me. But I said it anyway.

"Go to Hell." 

It didn't make me feel any better.

 "Too late, Sonic."

Of course, my head snapped up so fast I nearly gave myself whiplash. And then I stared. I stared because I got a reply, when it was the last thing I expected. I stared at the reference of '_we_' because it meant more than one and that meant I wasn't alone. I stared at the crimson on black, and those red, red eyes. I stared at the ridiculous white tuft of fur on that chest, those shoes I'd always really liked. I stared at him. I stared at-

"Shadow…?"

No reaction. He just stood there, looking pretty good for someone dead nearly a year. His form wavered slightly, but he looked solid enough. I nearly wanted to hug the guy to make sure. Nearly. He didn't cast a shadow though. But then, neither did I.

"You're alive!?"

Shadow raised an eyeridge, but didn't say anything. A second later, I realised why.

"Uh- not _alive_… I mean…" 

God, I sounded like an idiot.

"You're uh… here," because I still wouldn't say _dead_, "Like me."

He nodded. Go me; I got a _nod_ from the intractable Shadow. Yay. Made my day let me tell you. But sarcasm aside, he really wasn't being all that helpful with not saying anything at all. Nothing, not even a-

"Hey."

I blinked. He had nodded at me, lowered that condescending eyeridge and had actually said hello. Or something close to. Okay, I know it's kinda sad, but that made me feel really good. Like I'd actually accomplished something worthwhile. Something I could tell my kids someday about, that I had made Shadow be friendly. Kind of. 

Only… I keep forgetting. Dead now. No kids. Not ever.

And because Shadow was looking at me, I gave him a little wave, realising I had just spaced out. "Hey," I said back.

What? If he wasn't gonna put in the effort…

He just looked at me. I just looked right back. There followed one of those silences where you really wish you had something witty or engaging to say, when really, all your teeny tiny brain was drawing with was a big fat blank. I was calm, only it was the calm of a duck. Y'know, all peaceful on the surface but paddling like hell underneath?

Luckily for me, Shadow didn't seem bothered by my silence. He just looked… kinda bored actually. Like he was here, but he really had better places to be. I tried not to get huffed when that thought occurred to me. Failed of course.

"So, I'm here and you're here and that's great an' all," I sounded sulky… I know I did, and hurried on, "But I don't know why I'm _here_." I gave him a pointed look, felt a little better for it. "Or why _you're_ here." Just to highlight my point, I tapped my foot.

Shadow gave me my answer without missing a beat.

"I'm your guide," was what he said. Those words exactly.

Right. 

And that brings me to where I am now. Right now. Standing, staring at the only other being that still knows of my continued existence. Who also happens to be dead.

Did I mention that this is getting really strange?

******

***To Be Continued…***

******

_Sonic_; "Shadow?"

_Orin;_ "Uh... Yeah."

_Sonic;_ "You could've picked anybody else – though not really – but, c'mon, Shadow?"

_Orin;_ O__o;; "Yeah."

_Sonic_; "I mean… Shadow!?"

_Orin;_ ¬_¬ "Yeah…?"

_Sonic_; "You're loving this aren't you."

_Orin_; ^_________^ "Yeah."

Again, apologies for this, it was kinda longer than expected, and for the typos I know must still be there somewhere. More soon.

_*Huggles & Take Care*_

Orin.


End file.
